Driving Digital Risk Protection: CybelAngel

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Key Takeaways

CybelAngel: The 20-Second Download

“We are a global digital risk protection company,” said Camille Charaudeau, VP of Marketing and Product Strategy at CybelAngel. “Really, our job is to identify all compromised digital assets before they fall into the wrong hands.”

With offices in New York, Boston, Paris and London, CybelAngel has approximately 200 employees and nearly as many enterprise customers, including LVMH, Cushman & Wakefield, and Signify.

The Biggest Challenges Customers Face

CybelAngel has seen a significant uptick in phishing attacks since April 2020. “It’s not just the big attacks like the ones we think about from nation-state actors. It’s actually still a volume game,” Charaudeau said, adding threat actors continue to successfully deploy tactics like typosquatting used for phishing campaigns. Ransomware is also on the rise. “We’ve seen one major incident per month since the beginning of 2021… most of the time, it’s about identifying open doors. It’s about finding keys that are possibly compromised somewhere on the Internet.”

Where do customers need the most help? Charaudeau said it boils down to a key theme:

“One word comes to mind – this would be visibility. Pre-Covid, teams used to control what we would call the perimeter. And now it has literally exploded, exponentially exploded.”

Companies struggle to maintain visibility in this extended cyber ecosystem. Charaudeau said cloud migration presents significant challenges, as companies struggle to keep up with visibility and control of all the data and strategy assets being added to their cloud environments. These challenges raise important questions for companies and digital risk protection providers like CybelAngel. “How do we gain back that visibility and control, and how [do] we not just wait for the attacks to happen in this new environment?  There is a shift toward a proactive mindset or proactive approach.”

Risks on the Rise

All markets and geographies face cyber attacks, and Charaudeau said CybelAngel doesn’t see any one area suffering more than others at this time. “We see all kinds of customer segments, from SMBs to very large organisations being attacked.” However, third-party risks are on the rise across the board. CybelAngel is monitoring this trend, and Charaudeau noted how pervasive it is in today’s market:

“It’s more than 60% of companies that have already been targeted by a third-party breach, and that will keep on growing... The more global the business, the greater the risks.”

Customer Insights: Auto Makers, Vaccine Manufacturers

CybelAngel recently completed a research study on cybersecurity at large auto makers. The findings found more than 140K unsecured digital assets belonging to auto makers or their third-party ecosystems, and 16% included critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The findings underscore the importance of visibility across a cyber ecosystem:

"Really, the heartbeat is that visibility component… most of that is shadow IT. Those manufacturers don’t even know that these assets can put them at risk and are vulnerable.”

Vaccine manufacturers are also battling intense cyber attacks. CybelAngel recently worked with one of its customers in that market, helping them to diffuse a significant risk before a threat actor could exploit the opportunity. “We helped that manufacturer detect [a] fake website before the attacker could launch their campaign. Typically, this was escalated to the FBI in the U.S., to the Department of Justice in the U.S… and that website was seized, and the hackers got arrested.”

CybelAngel also works with customers in the telco / telecom sector, which is heavily reliant on third parties. One of CybelAngel’s telco customers was concerned about the security of data they shared with external consultants and approached CybelAngel for help. “We are able to scan the entire internet looking for mentions of that confidential data… and when we detect a data breach – in that case, we did, it was from one of the consultants they were working with – and that consultant had all the business plans of a new project. Highly critical, talking about [a billion-dollar project] in the U.S. So, we detected that open FTP server and were able to take it down with our customers before hackers or competitors could get to that IP and use it.”

What’s Next for CybelAngel: Augmented Intelligence

CybelAngel is very focused on maintaining its strong growth. “Keeping on growing, given this renewed traction and growing traction that we are seeing out there in the market from our customers. We definitely want to become the global leader when it comes to digital risk protection solutions out there,” said Charaudeau.

How does CybelAngel intend to drive this continued growth? Charaudeau calls it augmented intelligence. “It’s the combination of both machine learning algorithms on one end and human analysts on the other end.” CybelAngel sees both as essential elements of their business. Machine learning scans ever-expanding data sets, but humans must be part of the process, said Charaudeau. “The machine will never be enough because you need context. You need investigation, you need business acumen in order to understand how critical this is for the business.” CybelAngel views both angles as vital components in the future of their business.

LEARN MORE ABOUT CYBELANGEL        CYBELANGEL RESEARCH STUDY      

Questions? Connect with the Baird team at RWBcybercoverage@rwbaird.com